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Pasadena, CA - New radio system to streamline first-responder communications

PASADENA, Calif. -- The city's new $7 million radio system, designed to streamline communications between emergency first responders, will make its debut just as the city gears up for the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game.

So they went from somehow being able to conduct undercover ops right on open analog channels for decades... to not even being able to allow DS to be heard? Extremely disappointing. I mean seriously... 1/4 of their calls are 'loud music'. That's ridiculous.

So do something about rather then just sit back and say, oh well that one will be missed..

Send the higher ups in the department and the city council, manager a letter, plus a few phone calls letting them know about your concerns and comments about it being encrypted. And while I don't condone being a pain in the ***, if I lived in the city I would be calling the WC office, If/when events were going on in my immediate area and I would like to be informed as to whats going on.

Make contact to the news desk of the local paper and a few of the major tv stations and stringer companies in the area. I already did and the local paper didn't know about the encryption. I had to call them after the bs article they published by the city/moto pr people.

While the system has great opportunity to be interoperable, as its name suggests it all depends on the way its setup, programmed and used.

If you are interested in speaking with me please don't hesitate to contact me. I have contacted a few people in recent days to speak up, so far only two of you have responded.. With that kind of effort expect everything to be ENC..

I'll try to contact some people with the city, to at least let my feelings be known. However... I am not a resident, and I don't feel that anything I have to say will hold much weight with them. I use to deal with the city of Pasadena quite a bit in my old line of work, and I will say this... While I am disappointed with this news, I am not that surprised. Pasadena and it's residents are VERY private people. In some ways, more-so than BH or other similar towns in the area. There's a lot of old money in Pasadena, and honestly... I think most residents there wouldn't know what a scanner is if it hit them in the head. In other words... If you told them that people can't listen to their PD anymore... Most of them would probably say: "good".

You guys gotta remember that Chief Sanchez was the chief who encrypted Santa Monica. I saw that coming a mile away. I doubt he's going to listen. But we could try. I wonder how Brian Day is going to get his crime stories from Northwest Pasadena.

I think they meant Verdugo Red 1 being TG 2101 on the P25 system and TG 33616 on the Glendale cell.

I don't even think there was a Pasadena PD feed on Radio Reference....so I am wondering how all these criminals were using their iPhones to commit all these crimes. (Forgetting for the moment that criminals don't use iPhones, but that is besides the point)

Aided by cell phone advances that - in terms of technology - change every few months, criminals are monitoring police activity constantly, Page said.
"With the advent of iPhones and other devices, you can use an (application) to figure out where the police are at any given time," he said.

So here's another case of online streaming being cited as a move towards full time encryption. Scanner enthusiasts aren't a threat, but every thug with his Ghetto PCS Android phone is.

Look for more of this next year as the "digital mandate of 2013" approaches, this is assuming the world doesn't end later this year- in which case two cups and a string will be the only thing that function.

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NO I will not help program your trunking radio. All opinions are exclusively those of the author and in no way reflect the position of his employer, contractors or other parties.

I think they meant Verdugo Red 1 being TG 2101 on the P25 system and TG 33616 on the Glendale cell.

I don't even think there was a Pasadena PD feed on Radio Reference....so I am wondering how all these criminals were using their iPhones to commit all these crimes. (Forgetting for the moment that criminals don't use iPhones, but that is besides the point)

It's not really happening, at least, not nearly on the scale or effectiveness as some of these decision makers think. Having said that, the genie is out of the bottle and it's going to get worse and worse.

I suggested having a feed provider feature to disable cell phone apps (via the RR api) and was shouted down. Oh well.

It would appear that at the very least... it gives them a great excuse. And since most city leaders aren't going to bother researching the subject, and the majority of the public couldn't care less... An excuse is really all they need. The only people that could put any real pressure on them is the media, and they pacify them by giving them their own radios.

It's not really happening, at least, not nearly on the scale or effectiveness as some of these decision makers think. Having said that, the genie is out of the bottle and it's going to get worse and worse.

I suggested having a feed provider feature to disable cell phone apps (via the RR api) and was shouted down. Oh well.

if you dig a little deeper, you'll find most radio system managers and PS support people don't really have a problem with scanner enthusiasts, as most are law abiding, productive citizens who are an asset, and not a liability, to their community. Many are active or retired PS people, telecommunications professionals, amateur radio operators, explorers, etc. Most have at least a basic understanding of how radios work.

OTOH, what scares them and gets their friends and foes in risk management concerned is that anonymous, third parties are capturing and forwarding, uncensored and uncontrolled, the raw radio traffic and streaming it worldwide. Everytime some dirtbag with a Smartphone gets popped and has a "5-0 radio" app on there (even if they aren't using it), it reminds them how "out there" their radio traffic is these days. Remember that in a risk manager's mind, this is a workplace- and radios are part of it- and they want to minimize outside parties intervention. Understandable, completely logical. Putting it all out for the world to eavesdrop doesn't sit well.

Encryption is cheap, affordable and a natural progression with the digital radio industry push.

One solution (at least for RR) is to only have OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED agency provided or authorized feeds.Of course, this would probably reduce the number of available feeds from hundreds to a few dozen.

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NO I will not help program your trunking radio. All opinions are exclusively those of the author and in no way reflect the position of his employer, contractors or other parties.

" Nearly a month after the police department switched to a digitally encrypted radio signal,city leaders still have no plans to allow local media live access to police chatter,officials said."

Chief Sanchez is smiling at the encryption.

and karldotcom tweeted that the cheapest scanner to pick up pasadena public works is 600 bucks. someone should tell him that the pro197 can do it for half that. if you like listening to garbag trucks. glendale police is just as much fun to listen to as pasadena ever was.

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